Usually, PLs are divided instead of repotted, but either can be done. First, your tree is not going to die if you can purge your thought process of the idea wilting means the plant needs more water. Have faith in the idea that plants in a damp/moist medium will always be able to take up water more efficiently than plants in a wet/soggy medium. The recovery will take 1 of 3 paths. 1) New growth will stop and the leaves will remain in a wilted condition for a period of time until enough new roots are generated to meet the top's moisture needs, Soon after the plant regains turgidity (stops wilting) it will resume growth. 2) Many leaves will die due to the fact a lesser volume of roots isn't going to be able to meet the moisture demands of the pot, which will cause the plant to literally wall off the leaves to prevent further moisture loss, or 3) you could remove at least half of the existing leaves to easy the o/a demand for water. If you do that, concentrate on removing the oldest leaves. If you look very carefully. You'll see the younger leaves are attached to the crown above or closer to the center than attachment point of older leaves. Resume fertilizing when you see the plant pushing new growth. Al

Next to our place is a vacant acre lot where the house was removed about 10 years ago. The garlic from their garden kept spreading over those years. There was a patch about 30x70 feet and other clumps here and there. A neighbor who was related to those people told me that the garlic was German Red. I spent some time investigating. There were 9 inch or so balls of bulbs mixed in with rounds. The bulbs were small, maybe an inch in diameter. I planted some of the cloves and got bulbs as large as 3 inches in diameter the first year. I would guess that these wilded plants will tend to grow for many years without problem because the spreading is accomplished by the bulblets bending the scapes over so that the plant can move a foot or two each year. Garlic plants grown from bulbils grow plants that are said to clear any plant diseases that would continue in plants grown from cloves. The 30x70 foot clump was mostly to the north of a huge shade tree, with a 3 foot in diameter trunk. In the spring into early summer the only thing growing there was the garlic but then the weeds would crowd out the garlic. When the scapes were on the plants the clump was still mainly weed free. I'm guessing that the shade helped the garlic overcome weed pressure.

I have a peace lily I brought home from my Grandmother's funeral 17 years ago. It has seldom done what I would call really well but some years it has flourished more than others. Well, a couple of years ago my husband re-potted it (the 2nd re-pot) and he put it in twice as large of a pot than it was previously in and covered the base of the plant (above the roots) by over an inch (maybe more). He also used a fertilizer (don't know what). Since then it has not done well. In fact it has withered to almost nothing. It still keeps trying...growing new little leaves all the time but they wilt, turn dark and die fairly quickly. Now my plant (which once was about 20" high and 15" wide) is about 3 inches tall and 5 inches wide. It is so sick. :( I am planning to replant it in a smaller pot and see if that will help (and trim any dead roots) but am wondering...how long do peace Lilies live normally? And, is there anything else I should do? What do you think it's problems were? Thanks, Cindy

If the pot is very shallow, using the guide to "water when the top inch (or two) of the soil feels dry" is usually ok. The same advice applied to plants in deeper pots, say 10" deep, is pretty much a recipe for over-watering. Here's why: For a very large % of plants, including PLs, it's best to water when there is just enough moisture in the medium to prevent drought stress. This means the soil column will be on the dry side except at the bottom. A pot filled with a 10" (deep) soil column very often supports a perched water table as tall as 6". This meant the top 2" of that soil column can feel dry, while the bottom 6" is 100% saturated. This has the potential to severely limit roots' ability to function, and, can set the stage for fungal root infections that wreck root health and often lead to the plant's loss of viability. Watering is a science and it holds significant sway over what kind of opportunity the grower might be able to provide the plant to realize as much of its genetic potential as possible. Poor soil and/or poor watering practices can rob a plant of virtually all of it's potential for growth and vitality, and much of its eye appeal. Using a 'tell' can take all the guesswork out of determining what moisture levels are deep in the pot where it counts most, and determining what intervals (between waterings) are appropriate. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al